Pressure builds for 44-tonners by Karen Miles • The Government
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is set to legalise the general use of 44-tonne trucks on six axles. Environmental groups have confirmed press reports suggesting the Government is ready to break a preelection promise by increasing the domestic weight limit from 38 tonnes.
With only weeks before the long-awaited White Paper on transport is published, junior ministers and officials at the Department of Transport are backing an increase in the maximum weight, but John Prescott, the Transport Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, still has to sanction the change.
In its manifesto Labour said it remained "unpersuaded" by the case for 44-tonne trucks, fearing they would be dangerous and environmentally damaging.
Organisations such as the transport environmental pressure group Transport 2000 and the Women's Institute are already threatening massive protests throughout the country if heavier trucks are allowed. Transport 2000 fears the move will increase the number of miles driven by trucks because it will encourage more centralised warehousing. It will be seeking a guarantee from the Freight Transport Association that once it has won 44 tonnes Prescott: Has yet to it will "not look for sanction 44-tonners. further increases in the maximum weights of lorries".
The FTA and Road Haulage Association are welcoming the prospect of heavier weights; the FTA expects oil companies and breweries to be the first to take advantage of any increase.
It also expects the 44-tonne limit to cut the number of top-weight trucks on the road by up to 10,000, leading to fewer drivers' jobs.
But the UK's largest freight train operator, English Welsh & Scottish Railway, says it could lose up to 20 million tonnes a year of its traffic to the roads if lorry weights rise.
The Government has yet to decide on a publication date for the White Paper, but it is not now expected before the end of July, when the Treasury is due to complete its spending review.